Call for Applicants: Mid-Term Evaluation of the Transparency International Middle East and North Africa Regional Programme

Transparency International (TI) is the global civil society organisation leading the fight against corruption. Through more than 90 chapters worldwide and an international secretariat (TI-S) in Berlin, Germany, TI raises awareness of the damaging effects of corruption and works with partners in government, business and civil society to develop and implement effective measures to tackle it.

TI is represented in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region by five TI national chapters and a national chapter in formation. The TI chapters have been active in the region for a number of years (Transparency Maroc was founded in 1996, and since then coalition groups and associations in Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon, and Palestine have been granted national chapter status). The national chapter in formation in Yemen has been established more recently, but is rapidly developing its collaboration with TI.

The TI MENA Programme

Transparency International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme (TIMP), funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), The German Foreign Office (AA – Auswaertiges Amt) and the United Kingdom Foreign and Commonwealth Office (UKFCO), operates within the Maghreb, Mashreq, and Gulf regions. The programme started in July 2011 and runs for a total of 3.5 years, until December 2014. The budget of the programme is 10.9 million euros.

A central focus for the TIMP is on chapter capacity development, with the view to strengthening their ability to play a leading role in seeking effective and sustained implementation of anti-corruption efforts. The TI MENA chapters - the local leaders of the anti-corruption movement - are the primary beneficiaries of the programme activities. Given the coalition-building approach of TI, the support provided by the programme acts as a catalyst to enable more effective civil society leadership for anti-corruption and effective governance reform at a national level.

TI’s programmatic approach is informed by TI’s vision and mission. TI’s vision, reiterated in the TI Strategy 2015, is “a world in which government, politics, business, civil society and the daily lives of people are free of corruption”. This coheres with TI’s stated mission “to stop corruption and promote transparency, accountability and integrity at all levels and across all sectors of society” and shall ultimately impact positively on peoples and countries social development, therefore leading to “an improvement of the livelihood of people, with a special focus on those who are the most affected by deeply rooted corrupt practices” – the external goal of the Programme.

To undertake its mission, the programmatic approach of TI seeks to “empower, strengthen the capacities, and engage civil society organisations, civil society coalitions and the public in addressing corruption and promoting transparency, accountability and integrity” – the internal goal of the programme.

The above rests on the main programme assumption that a strengthened and empowered civil society which is better equipped and prepared to fight corruption and promote transparency, accountability and integrity, does have an important societal leadership role towards greater demand for anti-corruption reforms, which in turn clearly contribute to the improvement of people’s livelihoods and well-being.

TI implements TIMP activities in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia and Yemen and intends to extend implementation to Algeria, Iraq, Libya and Syria in 2014. Bahrain, Kuwait, Mauritania and North Sudan are included in limited activities, dependent on agreement with the donor funding the relevant measures.

2. Programme Structure

The programme targets six distinct yet inter-connected areas, as defined in the TI Strategy 2015 and TI-S Implementation Plan. Each area corresponds to one of the programme components and has its own defined purpose. These component purposes are together complementary and contribute to the achievement of the programme’s external goal of strengthening and empowering civil society’s institutional and organisational capacities and networks.

Regardless of their level of capacity, TI chapters and partners in the MENA region face their own individual challenges and confirm the benefit of participating in the regional programme and the wider TI movement.

The goals of TIMP are as follows:

Internal Programme Goal - To contribute to an improvement of the livelihood of people across the MENA region, with a special focus on those who are the most affected by deeply rooted corrupt practices.

External Programme Goal To contribute to empowering, strengthening the capacities, and engaging civil society organisations, civil society coalitions and the public in addressing corruption and promoting transparency, accountability and integrity in the MENA region.

In summary the programme seeks:

To strengthen in the MENA region the capacity of TI Chapters and other civil society Partners to effectively work on anti-corruption issues and reforms at the national level and to contribute – individually and collectively – to the global fight against corruption.

To provide anti-corruption activists in the MENA region with access to readily available evidence and practical tools to fight corruption and advocate for change.

To increase responsiveness to people’s demands for transparency, accountability and integrity in the MENA region.

To generate robust evidence on public sector corruption risks in the MENA region, and provide anti-corruption activists with the tools and solutions to advocate for change.

3. Objectives of the evaluation

The overall objectives of the mid-term evaluation are the following:

Provide an objective assessment of the achievements and results, weaknesses and strengths of the programme, as well as an analysis of its performance in terms of progress and process, relevance, sustainability and to what extent the programme is contributing to enabling the desired impact.

Generate lessons learned and good practices from each of the respective expected objectives of the programme.

Assess whether the results achieved are relevant for the target groups and current corruption environment in the programme countries.

Provide clear and forward-looking recommendations that can guide TI Secretariat and national chapters in re-focusing the interventions and in developing strategies for the future implementation of the Middle East and North Africa Programme

4. Key issues to be addressed

The following questions could be addressed during the evaluation but are subject to discussion and agreement with TI-S during the period of designing the evaluation approach.

Relevance: Is the implementation of TIMP activities consistent with beneficiaries' requirements, national needs, regional priorities and partners' and donor's policies?

To what extent are the objectives of the programme still relevant?

Are the activities and outputs of the programme consistent with the project goals and objectives?

Impact: To what extent is the programme contributing to enabling the desired impact as spelled out in the programme document? Has the implementation of TIMP activities so far impacted the anti-corruption environment in the country (positive and negative)?

What real difference have the activities made so far to the beneficiaries? Please also take into account the gender dimension.

How many people have been affected?

Effectiveness: Evaluate the activities carried out by the national chapter and TI-S in relation to their effectiveness in achieving the programme objectives. Evaluate the input and the technical assistance and support from TI-S.

To what extent are objectives likely to be achieved?

What processes have shown potential in impacting positively on the outcomes of the programme and which have shown the potential of impacting negatively and shall therefore be replaced?

What can be improved?

Efficiency: What are the costs and benefits of this programme? How well is the programme providing a cost effective response to the corruption challenges being addressed? Assess implementation arrangements and managerial structure of the programme.

Are activities cost-efficient?

Are objectives achieved on time?

Are the activities under TIMP implemented in the most efficient way compared to alternatives?

Sustainability:

To what extent are the benefits of TIMP likely to continue once the project ends?

What are the major factors which influence the achievement or non-achievement of sustainability of TIMP?

5. Methodology

The evaluator is ultimately responsible for the overall methodological approach and design of the evaluation, which should be adapted to the requirements of the ToRs. The evaluation should use a participatory and gender-sensitive approach engaging relevant staff at TI-S and national chapter levels, stakeholders and beneficiaries through structured methods. Both quantitative and qualitative data should be utilised in assessing the programme. The exact evaluation methodology should be defined, discussed and agreed with TI-S during the first days of the evaluation.

6. Report structure

All evaluation outputs are to be submitted in English, in electronic form, in accordance with the deadlines stipulated below. The consultant(s) is responsible for editing and quality control of language. The final report should be presented in a way that directly enables publication. The TI Secretariat retains the sole rights with respect to all distribution, dissemination and publication of the deliverables. The evaluation team is expected to adhere to the DAC Evaluation Quality Standards.

The evaluation report should be written in English, should not exceed 50 pages (excluding annexes) and must include the following sections:

1. Title Page including Programme Identification Details

2. Table of Contents

3. Abbreviations / acronyms page

4. Executive summary

5. A short introduction to the programme (concept and context)

6. The evaluation methodology

7. Findings

8. Lessons learned

9. Recommendations (to TI-S, to national chapter, to donor)

10. Annexes

a. Terms of reference

b. List of people met

c. Documents consulted

d. Detailed statistical data such as updated baseline surveys, etc.

e. Brief description of the main achievements so far in each country including quantitative data if possible (maximum 2 pages per country)

7. Specifications and logistics

The evaluation is set to start on the 05/08/13. The expected duration of the evaluation is 20 days. The evaluator will carry out the following tasks:

Fieldwork in a number of countries (selection of countries (either Morocco and Tunisia OR Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan) will be done following the document review and in coordination with TI-S and national chapter) (7days)

Final report, with actionable recommendations to TI-S, national chapter and the donor, Presentation of main findings ( 8 days)

The expected deliverables and timeline are the following:

Design of the evaluation approach by 12/08/13

Draft Final Report by 29/08/13

Final Evaluation Report by 12/09/13

8. Required skills and experience

TI is inviting expressions of interest from individual consultants or a team of consultants to carry out the mid-term evaluation of the TI MENA Programme. The consultant(s) should have:

Over ten years of relevant experience in designing and facilitating participatory evaluation processes, ideally also of multi-country programmes and engaging a broad range of stakeholders.

A background/knowledge in the field of good governance and anti-corruption work.

Demonstrable experience of working with civil society organisations or networks in the Middle East and North Africa

Be highly motivated and committed to the values of transparency and integrity.

Spoken and written fluency in English. Arabic and/or French a distinct advantage

Applications (in English) must be sent by email to MENAconsultancy@transparency.org by 22/07/2013 midnight and contain the following elements:

Curriculum Vitae with full description of the applicant’s profile and experience. In case of a team CVs for all involved consultants.

Approach and proposed data collection methods based on the information provided in these ToR

Detailed proposal of how the assignment will be approached, including detailed cost estimate.

One sample of previous work.

A detail budget including all possible costs that may be incurred during the evaluation, including travel and administrative costs.

Contact details for at least two independent referees with in-depth and proven knowledge of the applicant’s expertise and relevant work experience.

9. Budget

The budget for this evaluation, including expenses, should not exceed 20,000 EUR. Please include in your detailed budget the following expenses:

2 trips to TI-S in Berlin (flights, hotel accommodation, subsistence etc.). 1 trip in the beginning of the assignment and one at the end for discussing the draft report.

Costs of 7 days field work in the region (Morocco and Tunisia OR Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine). This should include all flights, hotel accommodation and other logistical costs on the ground (interpretation if required, local travel etc.)